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March 2017 HRMonthly 23
22
hrmonline.com.au
SAMANTHA
PALMERCAHRI
GENERAL MANAGER OF GOVERNANCE,
PEOPLE AND CULTURE, ABS
I’ve been up close and seen the success that can be achieved when
organisations recognise they have a problem with gender equity
and take determined steps to turn things around quickly.
The ABS was a finalist in AHRI’s 2016 awards for its
progress in gender equity. A mong other things we increased the
female proportion of senior leaders from 23 to 47 per cent. The
biggest hurdle to overcome was recognising and accepting that
institutions, organisations and our employment system have
embedded discrimination.
It’s easy to see the problem at the personal level but as HR
professionals we need to take a helicopter view and work out
how to address the tremendous impact that our historical
organisational and employment systems, built over long periods of
time, have had on women.
The improvement at the ABS shows what you can do when you
accept there’s a problem at the systemic level in your organisation.
It’s about moving from making excuses to making progress.
Review your workplace gender equality statistics including
gender proportion at different levels, salary info and so on. Use an
independent party to assist you and take a long hard look – again,
no excuses for what you see.
Also CEOs and key leaders need to state the importance of this
issue, commit to taking action and hold people to account. •••
MATT
WALLAERT
BEHAVIOURAL SCIENTIST
What’s the biggest obstacle for women? I’m going to go with:
Men. Women’s biggest problem in the workplace doesn’t tend to
be other women, and it doesn’t tend to be themselves – it’s not a
‘lean in’ problem – at the end of the day it is simply that so many
men don’t think that it’s a real issue.
Payscale came to me a year ago and they said, “You do research
into this area, do you want to put anything into our survey?”
I said I wanted to ask two questions. One: Do you think women
and men have equal opportunities in workplaces in general? Two:
Do you think women and men have equal opportunities in your
workplace? And the results were incredibly depressing. In spite of
all the evidence, 60 per cent of men thought that workplaces in
general were fair while 80 per cent felt their workplace was fair.
When 80 per cent of people think something isn’t the problem
in their workplace, that’s a huge issue. At that point you’re only
having a conversation with one in five men.
You ask me what should men do about it? Obviously I want
men to be bigger advocates of the pay gap. I want men to take
things like unconscious bias training. But it starts with something
as simple as science. Recognise that it exists. Every single woman I
know has some story of sexism in their workplace. A nd men have
trouble wrapping their heads around that.
Even if they can’t believe that they themselves are sexist at least
come to the the conclusion that it’s a real thing.
“What we need is a community
that is more supportive of
women who take a chance
on positive things, and put
themselves out there.” TARA MOSS
“Every single woman I know
has some story of sexism in
their workplace. And men have
trouble understanding that.”
MATT WALLAERT
HEAR TARA MOSS AT
AHRI’S INTERNATIONAL
WOMEN’S DAY BREAKFAST
Join author and human rights advocate Tara Moss in Brisbane (8 March)
and Sydney (9 March). In Canberra, come and be inspired by journalist
Sarah Ferguson on 8 March. Registrations close 2 March (Sydney)
and 8 March (Brisbane and Canberra).
bit.ly/ahri_iwd
HRM30_22-23_3SAY.indd 23
17/02/2017 5:29 PM